Long-term growth is a priority for any credit union. Yet at the same time, many organizational leaders are not sure what components to consider when planning and executing a growth strategy.
True growth is less about one singular major move and is more about a series of smaller and more meaningful ones. Taken together, they add up to the legitimate growth mindset needed to ensure that your credit union prospers for years to come.
1. Analytics
To truly gain a better understanding of your credit union's membership, data analytics are a great resource. The more data collected, the more insight you have into what your members want and, most importantly, what they need. Offers can then be personalized based on an individual's behaviors and preferences which are insights that can be used to make better and more informed decisions moving forward.
2. Improving Cybersecurity
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it rising levels of unemployment, which invariably led to a rise in fraud reports with the FTC. Members will only embrace financial services that they know are secure --ones that will help them protect the money they've already worked so hard to earn.
That's why one of the best credit union membership growth strategies always involves taking advantage of every opportunity to improve cybersecurity and increase fraud detection. The more confident people are in what you have to offer, the more likely they are to embrace those services over the long term.
3. Targeted Products that are Relevant
With a data analytics foundation in place, along with the aforementioned security measures, you can then combine all of that information to create more personalized member journeys. Due to an increase in competition across the credit union space, it's been determined that one of the best ways to ensure growth is to keep existing members aware of new products and services.
This level of personalization brings with it other benefits, too. It opens the door for cross-selling in a way that makes members more likely to take you up on offers because they're finely tuned to their own specific needs and behaviors.
4. Improving Member Retention
Once a new member has decided to join your credit union, it's imperative to look for ways to keep them there. Again, this can be accomplished by offering more of what they need--meaning loyalty programs and mobile services.
One recent study from Pymnts indicated that 49.1% of all credit union members placed a high value on loyalty innovation. These days, if someone isn't interested in your loyalty program (or if you don't have one), they're likely to switch to another financial institution. Therefore, if you can increase the quality of that program, you naturally begin to increase member retention across the board.
5. Automation for Greater Efficiency
Finally, one of the best ways to develop a true growth mindset for your credit union involves embracing automation for maximum efficiency. Things like marketing automation or even going through member analytical data are important, yes--but they also take a significant amount of time. Every minute that you can free up for one of your workers is a minute they can spend on offering a personalized level of care and attention to detail to members--which in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.
Taking Those Beginning Steps
Implementing these steps will take some time. At FLEX, we've recently created a Member Services eGuide that can help shed invaluable light on the topics outlined above in more detail. To read it, or to get answers to any other questions that you may have, click the button below to get started.
